CLUBS BRACED FOR NEW DAWN

Sheffield Eagles boss Mark Aston spotted the flaws in the new domestic structure for professional rugby league six months before the details were unveiled.

The Eagles head coach and chief executive took the opportunity at the pre-season launch to slam the shake-up, dismissing the notion that the re-organisation would pave the way for the re-introduction of promotion and relegation.

Under the format confirmed by the Rugby Football League last week, the leading four Championship clubs will battle for the right to go into the top flight next summer but the odds will be stacked against them when they enter a series of play-offs with the bottom four teams from Super League in the new Super 8s.

Leigh managed to push Leeds all the way in their Challenge Cup quarter-final at Headingley earlier this year and it would not have been an injustice had they won, but that was a one-off match and they will need to reel off a few of those performances in quick succession if they are to claim a top-four spot.

Paul Rowley's Centurions would have rubbed their hands at the prospect of taking on Bradford and London Broncos right now but a 12-team Super League in 2015 promises to be significantly more evenly-contested.

The Super League clubs, boosted by a £1.7million hand-out from central funds and the right to spend all of it on players' wages, will go into the seven-match play-off series battle-hardened in the absence of any obvious weak links which was the case this season with the Broncos and the Bulls.

Funding for the leading Championship clubs will be significantly increased in order to help them make the adjustment to full-time but they will still be on less than half the money enjoyed by their Super League counterparts and they will not be as well prepared for cut-throat rugby after playing the weaker part-time clubs every other week.

One point that appears to have been missed in the shake-up is that, while there are genuine attempts to help clubs bridge the gap between Super League and the Championship, the disparity between those at the top of the Championship and the rest will become even bigger due to a sliding scale of central payments which drop to as little as £150,000.

However, despite Aston's protestations, the carrot is there and organisers have come up with an ingenious sideshow that will give the likes of Leigh every encouragement to deliver on their ambitions.

The one-off clash between the fourth and fifth-placed teams in the middle eight will provide an eagerly-anticipated showdown, with the winners claiming a place in the top flight for 2016.

It has been dubbed The Million-Pound Match, rekindling memories of the relegation decider between Wakefield and Castleford in 2006 which drew a full house to Belle Vue.

The RFL's claim that "every minute of every game" will count in 2015 may come back to haunt them but there is little doubt that every point will be vital and, therefore, the importance of the scoring system currently under debate cannot be understated.

With one system to be used throughout the league structure next season, it is possible Super League will be brought into line with the Championship, where there are three points for a win, two for a draw and one for losing by 12 points or less.

The system was brought into focus on Sunday when Whitehaven, who were trailing visitors Featherstone 35-22 with a minute to go, opted to kick for goal when awarded a penalty to get them a losing bonus point.

It was only a fourth bonus point of the year for Whitehaven, who have won more games than local rivals Workington yet are below them in the table after their neighbours picked up nine.

Under the traditional format used in Super League, Whitehaven would now be above Workington in the table and out of the relegation zone.